Episode 7 - The Great British Sewing Bee - Jenni's Story.

1/4/2014

Lovely Lynda is made the April Fool.

My lovely Lynda.

Unfortuntley, I was a little behind with the Great British Sewing Bee this week, as I had a rehearsal booked with Snooty Bobs. However, I already knew what was coming. I'd sent a personal message to Lynda that day to reminder her that I thought she was amazing and that I loved her to bits. I honestly had Lynda and potentially one other to contestant to to win ( I won't reveal the other one yet) when I was asked on my exit interview in Episode Five.
When I finally got round to watching it, I was a little dissapointed with the judges comments regarding Lynda. 'A little inconsistant', she has had garment of the week three times! Closely followed by Tamara who only got her second garment of the week at the end of this episode. That said, I was sad to see Lynda go but very please for Chinelo, Heather and Tamara! Well done ladies and good luck for the final next week! This is very stange for me to say as we all know this is prerecorded programme but it really does feel like its only just happening. Reliving it if you like.
Im very excited about the Final, but also gutted as again I'm not going to be able to watch it live. My good friends have treated me to an evening at the Symphony Hall in Birmingham. We are going to be watching Hitchcock's - Psycho. This is no ordinary screening as it will be accompanied by a live orchestra! Awesome and a little eerie as we might be at the famous shower scene as they are announcing the winner of the GBSB, this isn't a spolier by the way, but I do hear that its a tense one!

My no pattern/copied hotpants in Corduroy.

As for this weeks challenges, WOW what a tough one! I've bodged a few patterns in my time but never to this extreme. Here are some Hotpants that I had copied back in and around April 2013 (according to the picture upload date on facebook #virtualdiary) with slight adjustments as I wanted to make them high waisted. The Hotpant are made out of left over corduroy from a previous project and the buttons are off an old coat.
My proposal for the Made to Measure challenge in the bee (if I had made it that far) would have been my dad's Levis denim shirt. I adore that shirt but as he and now I, pretty much live in it, its falling to bits. Holes in the elbow's, you name it, its falling apart :(
I was hoping to get some time to have a go at the First challenge for the blog today, but I haven't had the time this week. Sorry Ladies and Gents.

The #sewingrevolution will be social-live!

SEWOFF/BAKEOFF DAY.

The #sewingrevolution came into full force this week. My first willing victim was Charlotte Hall. A dear friend who had made my wonderful cupcakes for the GBSB premier party as a suprise (check out episode one blog pic's) .
As the 'boys' were at a whiskey festival we decided we would have a 'crafty' day and transfer skills. Its as kind of a sewing bee cook off day if you will.
The task to make and decorate cupcakes and make a 'Beatrice' Dress by www.sewmesomething.co.uk . A fantastic beginners pattern that I came across at the Sewing For Pleasure event at the NEC a few weeks before.

A wonderful pattern that is a great start for beginners and a fantastic pattern for any sewing hands that love something comfortable and has wicked pockets!

Reversible 'Beatrice' Apron Dress.

I had already made this particular dress the night before and was wearing it at the time but I had slightly adapted the pattern to make it reversible. Therefore, I got two dresses in one garment! A great holiday item as you would only need to pack this and it would cover two days (with a bit of airing) !!
Anyway I digress, First thing first we needed was materials of both kinds! Fabric was the first of the ingredients on the list. Charlotte just couldnt get over how many different types and styles there were being a non sewer. Guiding her through she found what she was looking for. Charlotte had decided to go with this wonderful Blue pin striped cotton with a contrasting Bicycle pattern that repeated in different colours. Very Paul Smith! She wanted to go with my adapted 'Beatrice' pattern as well, this was going to be ace!

Addictions of every kind! Cake and fabric!

After getting all the cake ingredients next we headed back to the appartment and got started on the cupcakes first. We figured we can cut out the fabric while they were cooking. A great tip for Cupcakes is to use stork not butter as this makes a lighter cupcake. Another tip, after creaming your butter and sugar don’t add the flour next, mix in the eggs first, then fold in the flour!
Mary Berry ain't go nothing on our Charlotte, but she would kill me for saying that!
Cake mix done and in the oven, we started on setting out our pattern on the fabric.
I explained how to lay out the pattern and to be aware of the bias of the fabric, and the difference's it makes if you do cut on the bias. All pinned in place she got stuck into cutting out.

Finished cup cakes! so cute!!

Charlotte has just finished cutting out and the cake were ready! But first they needed to cool down before we could decorate them. So Charlotte got straight on with it and tackled the pockets! I was very impressed, a natural! With the side seams now attached we have one side of the dress completed. We decided that we would leave that for a bit and make a start on decorating the cakes . As it was a lovely sunny day and feeling like spring finally, we went for grass, flowers and Ladybirds and of course Bee’s! Charlotte was an excellent teacher! I think we should hook up and do a master class!!! The sew off/cook off we joked! What do you think?
While the icing and fondant set, we set to work on the second part of the dress. This was basically what we had just done, but again to make it reversible.

Paul Smith 'beatrice' eat your heart out!

Feeling like we had achieved something already by completing the cup cakes we had a little glass of Prosecco to celebrate first! Then got straight back on it. We were both determined to get this finished today! Repeating what we had done earlier to make it a reversible dress. We then stitched the two pieces together, right sides together and leaving a small gap to pull back through. Bagging it if you like. For those of you that don't sew, think about a inside out pillow case, where you can see all the stitches but when you fold it the right way its a lovely clean seam. That's bagging.
We then needed to sew the shoulders together and top stitch all the way around. Charlotte a little overwhelmed by all the sewing that a garment requires had another glass of Prosecco but felt very proud of herself, with me even more so. I was so glad that she had done this herself and it was all ready to wear! My #sewingrevolution mission was now complete!

Check out next weeks Blog, talking about the Final Great British Sewing Bee :(
and my Upcycle Sewing clinic at www.guthrie-ghani.co.uk.

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